This invention relates to a system, apparatus and method for enabling a participant to interact in a virtual environment and, particularly, a system, apparatus and method for enabling a participant to control multi-dimensional kinetics of an avatar in a virtual environment.
Virtual environments comprise computer-generated, generally three-dimensional representations of a real, physical setting. The setting can be a city, a mall, an individual store, a building, a suite of offices, an individual office or some other space. The representations can be more or less realistic both in terms of their rendering of the real world and in terms of the human senses that are supported.
In any case, a virtual environment generally comprises virtual objects, the objects typically including entities that either are animate or inanimate. Inanimate entities may include features of the environment, e.g. a wall in a virtual office that is always an inanimate wall in the office. Animate entities may include so-called avatars and bots. Bots are images that, generally, operate autonomously from the participants to perform predetermined tasks or provide features within the environment. A bot can include, for example, a wall that transforms to deliver incoming messages. An avatar, by comparison, is an image that represents, and is controlled by, a participant and that typically supports one or more of the following: (i) arm, hand and other body gestures or movements, (ii) facial expressions, (iii) speech and (iv) motion.
However configured, a virtual environment generally beckons its participants to become immersed in the sensory experience it provides. To do so, the participants interact with the environment's objects. As an example, social interaction between participants is conducted by interaction among such participants' avatars, the interaction occurring, e.g., as the avatars' paths converge during a stroll in a virtual park. As another example, a participant can interact with a group of avatars, a timekeeper/umpire bot and a soccer object in a virtual soccer match.
In both such examples, a participant exercises their avatar by moving its location relative to the other objects in the environment (hereafter referred to as "avatar kinetics"). To do so, the participant typically operates one or more conventional input devices of the participant's computing station. These input devices typically include a keyboard, pointing devices, virtual reality gloves, body-sensing suits or other sensing attire.
These input devices are acceptable for controlling certain avatar movement (e.g. movement of an avatar's hand to wave). However, they have shortcomings with respect to avatar kinetics. Pointing devices and virtual reality gloves, for example, are hand-operated. By comparison, avatar kinetics correlate to the biomechanics of the participant's lower body movements (e.g., hips, legs and feet). To enhance correlation between participant biomechanics and avatar kinetics, body-sensing suits and other such attire (e.g., virtual reality socks) may be used. Even so, the participants, so attired, are compelled to actually travel around their physical surroundings in order to control the kinetics of their respective avatars.
Such travel, a shortcoming in itself, also tends to be inconsistent with the virtual experience. As an example, the participant is generally tethered to its computing station either by a cable or by the maximum distance limiting radio-based connections. As another example, the participant's physical surroundings are unlikely to match the virtual environment of the participant's avatar. Due to the tether and/or the surroundings, then, the participant may encounter an abrupt encumbrance to continued motion while the participant's avatar is encountering unencumbered space.
One solution is a treadmill. However, a treadmill has it own shortcomings. One such shortcoming is that treadmills generally rely on a belt which travels freely in only a single dimension. Indeed, the travel freedom typically is along only one direction in that single dimension. Another such shortcoming is that treadmills tend to have inertia associated with the mass of the drums supporting the belt. This fly-wheel type inertia requires substantial power to control which power must come either (i) from the participant themselves, which is potentially dangerous, or (ii) from a substantial motor which requires significant control mechanisms and, therefore, potentially is both expensive and dangerous.
In general, the quality of the participant's experience is largely determined by the level and quality of interaction supported by the environment. In some cases, however, interaction supported by the environment can be exploited only with the proper resources being available to the participant at the participant's computing station. In the specific case of avatar kinetics, conventional input devices simply are insufficient resources.
Accordingly, a need exists for proper resources directed to controlling multi-dimensional avatar kinetics in a virtual environment. More particularly, a need exists for enhanced input devices that correlate such kinetics to a participant's lower body movements, while liberating the participant from actual motion in their physical surroundings.